You know what? It's the offseason, basketball is my favorite sport, the Celtics are my favorite team, I'm not going to apologize for throwing out trade ideas that are fun to talk about with others who feel the same way.
I usually have some logic behind any trade ideas, and here's my thinking for this one:
The motivation was from Marc Stein's article today:
Okafor, meanwhile, continues to be mentioned by chatterers as the restricted free agent most likely to leave his current employer via sign-and-trade.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/columns/story?columnist=stein_marc&page=VegasChatter-080717&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab5pos2One idea would be to try to trade
Perkins, Scalabrine and Glen Davis in a S&T for Okafor, if Okafor signs about a 6yr 55 million dollar contract starting at around 7.5 mil a year with 8% raises. Okafor is an upgrade from Perk and plays about 9 more minutes a game, something to consider since we'd have to use KG at the 5 for less time and use fewer backup center minutes.
However, I know there are subtleties to trading BYC contracts in a Sign and Trade, and though I'm not figuring out the specifics, I know the percentages are easier to get around in bigger trades. So I wanted to try and expand the deal, and here's my reasoning:
-MJ is questionable at best as a GM, and seems drawn to recognizable names.
-Ray Allen is a big name, and would be a nice fan draw and still an excellent player
-Charlotte appears hesitant to invest long term in anybody, so the proposed deal would shorten Charlotte's financial obligations.
Here's the proposed deal:
Ray Allen (2 yrs, 17.4 and 18.
Scalabrine (2yrs, 3.2 and 3.4)
Glen Davis (1 yr, .7)
Total: 21.3 mil in yr. 1
For
Jason Richardson (3 yrs, 12.2, 13.3, 14.4)
Okafor (6 yrs, 8, 8.8, 9.7, 10.6, 11.7, 12.9, 61.7 total)
Total: 20.2 mil in yr. 1
Obviously we'd try to get Okafor to either sign for less total money, take smaller raises, or frontload the contract as much as possible to give future flexibility. I don't know the lowest he'd sign for; I was estimating 6 yrs 55-60 mil but he might go for 50 mil for 6 yrs.
Jason Richardson is a very good player. He seems fully recovered from his knee injury. He's only 27, had a better PER than Ray Allen last year and does a lot of the same things. He's a career .363 3 pt. shooter but he's been trending upwards, shooting at .384, .367 (injury year), and .406 (last year), and he rarely turns the ball over and chips in a decent amount of rebounds. His assist/turnover numbers are nearly identical to Ray's.
Anyway, our lineup would be:
Rondo, Pruitt
Richardson/TA
Pierce/Giddens
KG/Powe
Okafor/Perk/O'bryant
That's a darn good lineup, and KG never has to play center.